The

The thud of heavy boots on wooden planks echoed through the evening air as a man marched

toward the warehouse at the end of the wharf.

The wharf jutted out into mud bay on the edge of the tiny Alaskan town of Skagway.

The town occupied a small flat strip of land at the end of a narrow valley that cut through

towering mountains.

Up in those mountains, in the Yukon territory, was the site of the newest gold rush.

Gold had lured the man to Skagway who now trumped down the wharf, but he didn't come to spend

his days up in the mountains, standing in the freezing cold streams or swinging a pickaxe

for hours on end.

He came to Skagway to mine the miners, as they say.

But his operations had led to trouble, as they had in other places, which was why he fled

all the way to Alaska, and that trouble had forced this confrontation.

As the evening light quickly faded behind the mountains, the man heard raised voices

erupt from the warehouse ahead.

He continued undeterred, with a rifle slung over his shoulder.

As he drew closer, he saw the outlines of four men standing guard in the distance.

They blocked the only passage to the warehouse, and they looked armed.

The man stormed past three of the guards and walked right up to the fourth.

The fourth guard, and the man who was on a mission, were enemies.

As they squared off, he did words flew back and forth.

Words quickly escalated into a struggle, and the struggle escalated into gunplay.

...